---
title: Cross Contamination Conundrum
description: Cross Contamination Conundrum
---
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## Something Powerful
# Resources
## Cross Contamination Conundrum
One of [Charles Caleb
Colton’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Caleb_Colton) most famous quotes was “ *imitation
is the sincerest form of flattery* ”.
I would hazard a guess that most of you have heard or used that quote at
some point in time. In developing our
messaging for our [Disinfection
Dysfunction](https://info.virox.com/disinfection_dysfunction) education campaign, “someone who may or may not have previously
written for Talk Clean To Me” decided to *imitate*
me with a little alliteration (albeit probably more mocking than flattery owing
to my love of a good alliteration), but hey, I’ll take what I can get!
What is Cross Contamination Conundrum you ask? Well, it’s a relatively unknown or unspoken
situation where some disinfectants can transfer pathogens from surface to
surface during the disinfection process. I think we all know that a new disinfectant
wipe or cloth should be used on surfaces as the room is being disinfected, but
the truth is that when auditing cleaning procedures, we frequently observe that
this is not the case. Using a single wipe over a number of surfaces can lead to
transfer of pathogens from one surface to the next and not the removal of them
from the environment.
Because high touch surfaces are increasingly being
recognized for their potential contribution to spreading pathogens, Sattar et
al set out to develop a testing method that more closely simulates field use of
disinfectants. Part of the interest was
to investigate if the disinfectant wipes were doing their job in removing
microbial pathogens from the surfaces they were being used to clean, and if
not, whether they could then transfer these pathogens to neighbouring areas.
The researchers used their recently recognized test method ([ASTM E2967-15](https://www.astm.org/Standards/E2967.htm)) and
conducted testing at 3 independent laboratories using 5 different commercially
available disinfectants against [*Staphylococcus aureus*](http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Staphylococcus-Aureus.aspx) and [*Acinetobacter baumannii*](http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/acinetobacter.html). The wipes were tested based on their
ability to decontaminate a surface within 10-seconds of wiping without
transferring pathogens to a clean surface.
[The study showed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26518272)
that the test method was both repeatable and reproducible between different
labs. The good news was that all
disinfectant products tested were able to achieve a >4Log (99.99%) reduction
against the bacteria tested with 10-seconds of wiping. However, only 1 disinfectant product (Accelerated
Hydrogen Peroxide®) was able to prevent transfer of bacteria to a secondary
surface. All other products exhibited
transfer of bacteria to secondary surfaces.
The study begs the question, does your disinfectant cause
cross contamination? I hope you’ll spend
some time investigating to find out!
*Bugging Off!*
Nicole
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